How the relationship between cocktails and food is different than your typical food and wine pairing

A crash course in assembling charcuterie plates and other cocktail-friendly snacks.

The anatomy of the (quote unquote) “Perfect Bite”

Best practices for planning the food at your next cocktail party or soiree

Fantasies that include getting drunk with Julia Child

And much, much more

The Fancy Schmancy Co. is also offering a SPECIAL VALENTINE'S DAY BOX with cheese, nuts, hear-shaped crackers, and jam. Be sure to place your order in time to impress that special someone for Valentine's Day 2018.

Featured Cocktail - The Upside Down Martini

Today’s featured cocktail is inspired by the lightning round in this episode, and it is the “Upside Down Martini.” The name refers not to the glass and the liquid contents (which would be tragic), but rather to the ratio of gin to dry vermouth.

There are a bunch of different recipes for the upside down martini floating around on the internet, so I’m going to give you two to choose from that I feel are actually palatable, and the key here is to use dry vermouth that is either fresh or has been properly refrigerated after opening.

What we'll call the “Orthodox” Upside down martini involves:

Two ounces of Dry Vermouth

1 oz of Gin

Several dashes of Orange bitters

On the other hand, some people would rather not drink that much vermouth. For that, you could sub in the following perfect ratio of ingredients:

1.5 oz Dry vermouth

1.5 oz Gin

Several dashes of Orange bitters

There’s always room in a simple cocktail like the martini to “MAKE IT YOUR OWN,” whether that’s by modulating the garnish, or the spirits ratio, or the bitters. And that’s what I’d encourage you to do here.

The upside down martini is kinda like looking at the world upside down - it’s the same stuff - just organized differently, and that’s where the fun lies.

Lightning Round

Favorite Cocktail

The French 75. Anything with Champagne, really.

Favorite Spirit

Gin

Cocktail with Anyone, Past or Present

Upside-Down Martinis with Julia Child in her French home, La Pitchoune.

Influential Cocktail/Cooking Books

Advice to Home Bartenders

Pick a few simple things, and explore from there. Don't try and do everything all at once. Pick one really great cocktail and one really great dish, and don't overcomplicate things. Make sure that you're still having fun, too. And if that means keeping the menu simpler with really great ingredients, all the better.